”The Earth We Eat
is about the most pressing question of humanity: how can we transform
the most important human occupation to contribute to global
sustainability and human welfare on a planet under increasing stress,” –
Johan Rockström, Executive Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Never
before in history have we produced so much food in the world, and so
cheaply. And yet, almost one billion people go hungry to bed at night.
The
authors visited villages in India that are threatened by soil erosion,
participated in the gambling at the Chicago Board of Trade, followed the
expansion of beef and soy in the Amazonas and travelled across the
dying countryside in Illinois. From maize farmers in Zambia with their
muscles as the only source of power to intensive greenhouses in the
Netherlands, from posh restaurants in Mumbai to the authors’ own
refrigerators, the story of how our food is produced has been woven.
The Earth We Eat
tells how farming shapes our world and the food we eat and how farming
has been shaped by fossil fuel, mechanization and ever increasing global
competition. While a supermarket stocks some 50,000 different products
and we seem to have endless choices, the reality is that our food is
increasingly monotonous—derived from just a handful of crops that are
grown in an industrial way.
Agriculture
is becoming more and more like any other industry, where different
components are produced in different locations, often in different
countries, and where the components are put together in huge assembly
plants, chicken factories or giant pizza bakeries. But agriculture is
not like any other industry, it is the foundation of our health and the
health of the planet.
People
and images talk to the reader through reports from visits to farms,
stock exchanges, nature reserves, research institutes and restaurants in
five continents. Linked to each story are facts and an easy flowing
narrative. The Earth We Eat has a clear angle without being simplistic or demagogic.
The nine chapters and their main content are:
The
introduction sets the stage for the book by, on the one hand,
discussing the changing content of our refrigerators, and on the other
hand, giving some basic data about the state of global agriculture. What
we eat and how we farm influence each other. The enormous diversity in
supermarket shelves is contrasted with monocultures in the fields;
hunger with obesity; fossil fuel driven farming with hand-hoeing; and
green revolution with organic.
The structure of the book is briefly explained and the case studies introduced.
II Travel through roundup ready land
Food
and agriculture are being increasingly managed like assembly
industries. The United States is a very good showcase for this.
We
visit the Chicago Board of Trade to show the enormous influence market
conditions have on farms. Contracts worth ten times the global
production of maize is bought and sold here every year. We interview a
trade developer and a trader and we also engage ourselves in speculation
to demonstrate how it works.
Bob
Stewart in Illinois grows GM crops, maize and soybeans only, uses
fertilizers and pesticides, and sells his crop in bulk for industry,
ethanol and feed. His story is the basis for discussion about soil
erosion, fertilizer use, GM crops, pesticides and markets. A farmer who
has chosen a very different path is Jack Erisman. He has farmed
organically for the last 20 years and has a very diverse system of
production as well as a diverse marketing strategy.
For
a long time, agriculture in the US expanded, but this is now reversed;
some lands are taken out of production because of erosion and some are
taken out of production to restore nature. In the American Prairie
Reserve in Montana, 10,000 bison shall co-habit over a vast area with
490,000 cows in an effort to restore the prairie. We discuss the
conflict between nature and farming and also the conflicts arising
around this initiative.
Its
main discussion is about the expansion of agriculture in Brazil at the
expense of the Amazon rainforest; how we convert big common goods of the
rainforest into small private gains for farmers and landowners.
We visit the large ranch Sao Marcello, certified by the Rainforest Alliance, and the settlers Maria and Luis Viera who
have an incredibly diverse agroforestry plantation with 86 species. The
Wolf’s farm seeks to integrate livestock and crops and trees on a
larger scale.
The
process of change is still rapid in Brazilian agriculture, and research
by the governmental Embrapa institute plays a big role in this
transformation. The effect of GM crops and the production of GM free
soybeans is discussed with farmers and Embrapa. Weeds are becoming
increasingly resistant to herbicides and instead of reducing use, GM
crops has led to an increase in their use.
The main limitation for the production of food in Africa is poverty and lack of markets rather than lack of modern technology.
Susan
Mkandawire is a very poor farmer in Zambia. She and her family are not
starving – this year – but they have no margins and very little
opportunity to get out of poverty. Godfrey Boma has more land and has
invested money he earned from other businesses into farming and that
allows him to make at least double yield per hectare and to grow and
sell more.
Sebastian
Scott in Zambia and a project in Tigray in Ethiopia demonstrate that
organic farming methods have the potential to substantially increase
yields, and pineapple growers in Uganda fetch a good price exporting
organic products. In Namibia we discuss that cattle breeding is one of
the best ways to produce food in large tracts of the world that are too
dry or cold for cropping.
We
end the Africa chapter with a discussion about the way ahead for
African agriculture. Our conclusion is that social and economic factors
are a lot more important than the technological factors which often
dominate the discussion, e.g. fertilizers or GM crops.
India
is largely vegetarian and still has the most cattle in the world. The
cow is a classic – and still relevant – focus of our report from India.
Through interviews with the National Dairy Development Board and farmers
in Gujarat, we describe the choice that India has; the path of brutal
industrialization or of a gradual adaptation of its production system to
new conditions and diets.
Agriculture
in Gujarat is a commercial success; on the other hand it has caused
severe soil erosion and loss of biodiversity which we study in the
village Khorwad. Even more seriously for farmers in Gujarat as well as
in many other parts of the world, water resources are depleted. Rajput
Ramjibhai Khodabhai and his neighbours in the village Jaloya have no
water left and therefore no future.
We end our journey in India in the fancy restaurant the Table in Mumbai, to discuss how food habits are becoming increasingly global; even beef hamburgers are now found in restaurants.
Our
report from Sweden discusses the process of commercialization and
mechanization of farming that has substantially reduced the number of
farms – as well as the number of shops and people in the country sides. A
development which is similar to most parts of Europe.
As
agriculture landscapes cover half of the land, its role in maintaining
bio-diversity and landscapes can hardly be exaggerated. We discuss the
loss of biodiversity both in the farming landscape and in agriculture,
that is, the reduction in varieties and breeds. Increasingly farmland is
also being lost to “development” in the form of supermarkets, roads and
parking lots.
The
family Johansson in Värmland shows how 10 farms became one in one
generation. The main driver has been competition, but we also show how
government policy shaped farms. Stänkdalen,
an organic farm with production of rape seed oil and ice cream, is an
example of a farm that goes another way, but still feels the pressure
from the market.
We
sum up the economic and social drivers that shape agriculture, how the
forces of global competition affect the decisions of farmers and food
industries. We
discuss how despite breakneck rationalization, most farmers still have
difficulties making ends meet. And as a result of successful
rationalization in farming, areas with “competitive farming” are social
deserts with almost no people left.
The
power of the food chain has moved away from farmers and food producers
to huge companies selling inputs and to supermarkets. Fewer actors
produce most of our food. They market many different brands but most
food is essentially a reformulation of a few ingredients.
External
costs caused by farming is not included in the price and the benefits
of good farming practices are to a very small extent compensated for –
food is simply too cheap. This leads to large scale environmental
destruction and cruel systems of keeping animals.
Is it possible to feed 9 or 10 billion people in a sustainable way?
Our
visit to Pudu Peppers, a company for intensive green house production
in the Netherlands, demonstrates how far intensification can go and that
the potential to increase yields is huge. But it comes at high
environmental costs.
Food
production has almost tripled in 50 years, and a lion’s share of the
increased production has come from intensified land use and not from
expansion of agriculture area. We expect this to continue. Meanwhile,
there are opportunities to expand agriculture in Africa and parts of
Latin America. The problem is not yet shortage of land, but that this
land is needed to produce essential ecosystem services.
There
are opportunities to increase productivity both with conventional and
organic methods. We have a choice and that choice must look further than
just the yield per hectare; it must take agriculture´s other roles into
consideration as well.
While
we will hardly go back to national self-sufficiency, it is clear that
the global food model has reached the end of the road and has many
negative side effects.
The
industrial model leads to impoverished bio-diversity and is a high risk
gamble; it is both possible and desirable to farm in an organic way. A
re-integration of crop production and livestock, and consumption and
production is needed. Meanwhile we will develop new production systems
for bio energy and perennial crops. Local and regional foods will return
or be re-developed.
Changes
in diets will continue to shape agriculture, and agriculture
development will continue to shape diets. Food will become more
expensive, and staple foods such as grain and root crops will also in
the future dominate our food systems. Meat will be more expensive and
therefore consumption will be reduced. Other sources for food will be
developed in the sea and there is a big potential to reduce waste in the
whole food chain.
The design
The
Swedish version of the book has 176 pages of 240*170 mm, with a total
of 250,000 characters, including spaces (excluding the preface and some
informational text about the SSNC). It has full colour print with a
large number of pictures. The body of the Swedish book is attached. Many
more good pictures are available.
Adaptations and variations
The authors are open to discuss adaptations for particular markets, e.g. by making special reports.
If
the publisher is interested, we would be very keen to further develop
the last chapter with reports from a few show cases for the future.
The authors
The authors
Gunnar
Rundgren was a farmer and has been one of the pioneers of the organic
movement in Sweden since 1977. He served as the president of the
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements 2000–2005. He
has worked as a consultant for the United Nations, The World Bank, the
Asian Development Bank and others. He published the book Garden Earth – from hunter and gatherers to global capitalism and thereafter in 2013. He is a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Forestry and Agriculture.
Copyright
The authors hold the right to the text and to the pictures.
Contact: Ann-Helen Meyer von Bremen, phone +46 705626406, ann-helen@uttryck.se
Gunnar Rundgren, phone +4670-5180290, gunnar@grolink.se
No comments:
Post a Comment